EPTFor the story it’s a story that I decided to focus on creating a romance. I didn’t want it to be super corny and more wanted it to be somewhat modern. So I decided to make it high school because that is what I’m most familiar with even though I have spent a year in college already. Any questions or comments or critiques are more than welcome and would be appreciated because I do want to become a better writer. If you don’t want to read it because its too long that is fine, no harm done but for those who do I hope you enjoy it :D
“Ready?” John said to Jill as they limo was coming to the stop.
“Let’s have some fun” Jill said taking a quick swig of a flask that they had brought with them.
“Let’s get this party started!” Ryan yelled from the other side of the limo and was met with a chorus of screaming and yelling. The limo came to a stop and they where at the dance. They quickly got out of the limo and where met by a teacher who pointed them towards the hotel entrance. As they walked up the 5 stairs to the entrance John took Jill’s arm to help her up the stairs.
“You know I can this myself John.”
“I know, but I wanted to anyways” John said after they had reached the entrance and quickly moved ahead to hold the door for her. After she had passed he decided to wait and hold the door for the rest of the group that he had come with.
Ryan told his date to go on without him for a second, “You know since your going as friends you don’t have to be the ‘perfect’ gentleman” he said to John.
“I’ll keep that in mind buddy” John said pushing him into the hotel so he could get out of the cold. As they both got into the hotel they saw both of their dates already in an elevator who’s doors where closing.
“Let’s take the stairs, it’s only like 5 flights, could be a lot worse. Besides I want to I could use another drink or two before we enjoy our last winter dance.” Ryan said directing John towards an employee. “Excuse me sir, where are the stairs?”
“Second door on the right” the employee said. They headed towards the stairs and once inside Ryan took out a water bottle that was filled to just a little under half of the bottle.
“We’re finishing this thing now” Ryan said.
“That’s a lot to just do now considering all that we just had in the limo, before the limo, and the stuff I had before I headed over to the dinner.”
“I didn’t know you drank before the pre-gaming,” Ryan said proudly and put his fist up where they shared a quick fist bump. “Either way we are finishing this though. Plus you have yet to ever dance at one of these things, and you never explained why. Now I know your not going to but maybe this will be that little thing that pushes you into finally dancing. Trust me you won’t regret it. Also I don’t have a chaser so this should be fun” Ryan said confidently.
“Lets just drink this thing already” John said staring at the bottle. They drank it shot by shot with both grimacing more and more with each shot. By the end both instantly regretted drinking the bottle at the bottom of the stairs. They trudged up the stairs with the alcohol slowly being to affect their mind.
They had made it to the top and Ryan quickly said, “its just girl dry humping you man. I don’t know why you don’t do it.” With that John opened the door and they were met by a sea of people and one teacher who gave a confused look at them. They ignored it and walked into try and find their friends. While looking they had to make a couple quick customary greetings to other people they knew but they really just wanted to find their original group.
After five minutes of looking they found them sitting at a table near the back right corner just talking. “Hey guys” Ryan said taking the seat that his date had been sitting on, and she then sat on his lap. John on the other hand found a seat next to Jill and gave her a small hello. She looked at him and without flinching she turned to Ryan.
“Ryan, how much did you guys just drink?” Jill said.
“What do you mean we come up right after you did”
“John how much did you drink?” Jill whispered to John.
Ryan gave John a look and Ryan slurred out “Nada, don’t worry so much.” He put his arm around her and pulled her in closer.
“He would never do something like this if he was sober, and he doesn’t use Spanish words in conversation Ryan” Jill said not pushing away from John. Ryan got up and gave a quick hand gesture to Jill to as well. Jill got up pushing away John’s hand. They found a quiet area away from the music.
“He was never going to dance with you if he was sober Jill. At least now there is a chance he will. He’s just drunk, not even close to incoherent.”
“Fine” and with that they started to walk back, “do you have any idea why he never dances?”
“Nope. Bit weird right?” Ryan said.
“Yea” Jill said heading back towards her seat next to John. Once down she shoved her seat closer to his and put his arm back around her. The conversation lasted for a while but eventually the group decided it was time to leave the table and go to the dance floor.
“Ready to dance?” Jill said hoping that he would say yes.
“Nope” and Jill’s heart sank.
“Why won’t you fucking dance with me?” Jill said both hurt and angry. “Why even go to a dance if you don’t ever fucking dance?” and with that she stormed away with her hands to her face.
Ryan walked over to him, “And what was that?”
“She asked me if I wanted to dance and I said nope,” John said factually.
“All you said was ‘nope’?” Ryan said putting emphasis on the nope.
“Yup” Ryan looked down for a second and then walked away with his date leaving John alone at the table. Looking around he could see a number of people dancing and having fun, or at least appearing to have fun. He looked at the dance floor once more and felt disgusted and moved on. He kept looking and saw Jill who was being consoled by one of her friends. She didn’t seem to be crying just looked like she didn’t get it. He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes.
He woke up to Jill who said, “You probably shouldn’t fall asleep here. Would make you look like an even bigger asshole.” John nodded and moved his posture to a little bit more a straight position. “Sure you don’t want to dance?”
“Yup”
“Why won’t you ever dance at one of these things?” Jill said hurt once again.
“Cause I don’t want to” John said definitively. Jill walked away an sat at another table within in view and began chatting with another one of her friends. She whispered something in his ear and they got up and headed to the dance floor.
She put herself in a position where she knew he would be able to see and he did. He looked for a second and had his attention pulled away by Ryan.
“Why the fuck is she dancing with him”
“Cause I didn’t want to dance. Either she wants to make me jealous or is done with me. Can’t tell which it is yet.”
“So you don’t even care?” Ryan said disappointed in his longtime friend.
“I care, but if me not dancing is what it takes to have a girl be done with me I can live without her.” John said with a hint of ambivalence.
John looked away back at Jill who immediately turned her head away the second he looked towards her. “You suck sometimes you know that John. Seems like you were just a gentleman at the start just so you wouldn’t look as bad when you refused to dance with her. You asked her to this thing and now you won’t even be a proper date for her. It’s bullshit and you and I both know she deserves better.” Ryan said pissed off at his friend.
“You’re right” John said. Ryan stared at his friend and with that left in fury to go find his date. John looked at Jill one more time and leaned back to go back to sleep hoping she would come and wake him up.
A tap to his shoulder, “John get up, we have to talk” by a voice he didn’t initially recognize. Opening his eyes he saw it was his history teacher and looked back towards where he had last seen Jill and she had stopped dancing and was just staring to see what was happening. He got up silently and followed the teacher into one of the hallways where it was much quieter. “You can’t sleep at the dance John. Makes you look like either your extremely bored or you’ve been doing something you haven’t been. I want you to stay here for a bit and recollect yourself and them comeback when you’re ready.” John stayed there for a while at first trying to think about everything that had happened but after a while just took out his IPhone and played some games. After losing in Tiny Wings he looked at the time and he had been gone for 30 minutes. He got up and headed back to the dance where he found Ryan and Jill looking around franticly.
“Hey guys” John said to both of them. They turned around and both had a look of relief on their faces when they saw him. Jill gave him a hug.
While Jill hugged John, Ryan said, “What happened with teacher?”
“Nothing important.” Jill let go of him and then he said, “but Jill I would like to talk to you about some stuff.”
“All right, where to” Jill said. John made a quick hand gesture towards a quiet area and when she had passed him he gave Ryan a quick wink and walked away with her. “So where are we going?”
“This teacher took me to this hallway which was super quiet and is the perfect place to talk to you about some things.” They walked through the hotel until they could no longer hear the music. With that John sat down and Jill next to him. He didn’t put his arm around her but instead just looked to the other side of the wall.
After a minute had passed in complete silence Jill said, “So what did you want to talk about?”
“I don’t dance at these things not because I don’t want to but because it doesn’t seem like the right place. It’s not dancing it’s just dry humping. I don’t want people to view me as a kid who does that kind of thing in front of adults. To me it just seems like it is something that shouldn’t be done in public,” John said. He hesitated, looked at her and then said, “What’s eating me up inside right now is that I feel like our entire friendship and whatever else could come out of it is on the line just because of this one fault of mine. I get that you want to do this and that it doesn’t bother you but it just isn’t going to be something I’m going to be comfortable with. I like you and I want to be in a relationship with you…” Jill’s hand covered his mouth and stopped him from talking. He gave her a confused look and she removed his hand. She leaned in and kissed him and said, “Lets just stay here and hangout then. I still have the flask, so we can just drink and talk while we wait for the dance to end.”
